NWC FEDERAL SPOTLIGHT (November 4, 2021 edition)
NWC Members,
Big news all! Michael Connor was confirmed today as Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) by the U.S. Senate by a vote of 92-5. Mr. Connor was nominated by President Biden to serve as ASA for Civil Works earlier this year. However, his nomination was delayed due to several Senate holds on U.S. Department of Defense nominees. Connor brings with him significant administration and Capitol Hill experience. He worked on Capitol Hill from 2001-2009 as staff counsel to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Additionally, from 2009 to 2014, Connor served as commissioner at the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation and served as Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior from 2017-2017. Connor is current a partner with the law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr. Connor is expected to assume the ASA Civil Works position within two weeks.
On another note, I am happy to say, I am now out and about again (check out the picture!). My first site visit was to Norfolk where I was hosted by Mr. Andrew Sinclair, Federal Affairs Director for the Port of Virginia and Mr. Will Fediw, Vice President of the Virginia Maritime Association (VMA). Andrew and Will rolled out the red carpet! I started the day at VMA where Will, and his boss, VMA Executive Director David White gave an overview of VMA and their priorities. We were joined by Andrew who talked about the close partnership that the Port and VMA has developed. Then we hit the water. Not literally of course but I got a first-hand look at look at the harbor and the port and all of their projects. It was an amazing day to be on the water! A huge thanks goes out to Captain Whiting Chisman, President of the Virginia Pilot Association for taking us out. Afterward, we hit a quick lunch before being joined by Mr. Richard Klein, Chief, Programs Branch, Planning, Programs and Projects Division at the Norfolk District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Mr. Klein gave a wonderful overview of everything the district is working on (it’s a lot!) before we devolved into a discussion about how we, as stakeholders, can work more closely with USACE. Mr. Klein’s response is based on his 40 years of service with USACE—you got to develop those relationships. A huge thanks for Andrew and Will for setting up an awesome day! I can’t wait to do more site visits!
A huge thank you to those you who joined us on Wednesday for NWC’s Education Session on Floodplain Regulatory Reform: What to Know and How to Respond. We were joined by Ms. Molly Lawrence, a partner with Van Ness Feldman (VNF), who briefed us on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Request For Information (RFI) on the National Flood Insurance Program’s Floodplain Management Standards for Land Management and Use, and an Assessment of the Programs Impact on Threatened and Endangered Species and their Habitats. Molly gave a comprehensive overview of the underpinnings of NFIP, before diving down into some of the RFI questions and potential impacts to NWC members. Many of her comments were geared toward navigation, flood control and water supply interests. Click here to read Molly’s alert on this issue.
In other NWC news, NWC’s 2022 membership directory will be sent out early next spring. As the holidays draw near, we hope you’ll take a moment to consider advertising in NWC’s 2022 Membership Directory. Advertiser benefits: You will enhance your brand, engage with other members in a compact, easy to read and search format; enjoy both print and digital reach; and have an excellent shelf life. Questions? Contact NWC’s consultant, Kathleen Turner, at KathleenTurner18@gmail.com or 703.657.9171.
Finally, NWC is still working to assess the best path forward for our 2022 Legislative Summit. As you know, NWC typically holds the Legislative Summit in early spring in Washington, DC which allows our members to meet with their members of Congress and relevant federal agencies. However, access to Capitol Hill offices is by appointment only and visitors must be met at the front door of the Capitol Hill office buildings and escorted to meetings, that is, assuming the office is accepting face-to-face meetings. Many of the federal agency buildings remain closed. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is currently doing a massive remodel to their offices and most staff will not return until February or March at the earlier and many will continue to work remotely. Stay tuned!
As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out.
Best, Julie Ufner, NWC President and CEO
QUICK LINKS
- Capitol Hill Happenings
- Congressional overview
- FY2022 Appropriations
- Congressional hearings of interest
- Federal Agency Corner
- Employer vaccination mandate has Jan. 4 deadline
- Presidential proclamation on critical infrastructure security and resilience
- Report on U.S. hydropower permitting process
- EPA seeks nominations for regional roundtable WOTUS discussions
- Board of Scientific Counselors Safe and Sustainable Water Resources videoconference meeting on harmful algal blooms
- FEMA hosts meetings on possible revisions to NFIP
- Request for Applications to fill a vacancy on the National Shipper Advisory Committee
- USACE Civil Works Partner Session–Resources
- Upcoming NWC Meetings
- NWC Water Supply Caucus meeting (Friday, November 19 at 2pm ET)
- NWC Legislative Policy Committee meeting (Thursday, December 2 at 4pm ET)
- NWC Navigation Caucus Meeting (Tuesday, January 11 at 2pm ET)
Congressional overview. So, the “good” news. The House is TENTATIVELY scheduled to vote on their revised reconciliation package later today with a Friday vote on the Senate’s bipartisan infrastructure package. But there are caveats. First, Democrats are unsure whether they have the votes in both the House and the Senate to pass the revised, almost $2 trillion dollar Build Back Better Act package. This is a smaller version of the $3.5 trillion dollar reconciliation which has been in limbo over costs and certain controversial provisions. Last week, President Biden released an updated $1.7 trillion social spending and climate framework on which the bill is based. Unfortunately, the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill got snagged in the quagmire of the larger reconciliation debate. Some members were concerned that if the House passed the smaller bipartisan bill there would be no interest in passing a larger social service net framework that would fund child and elder care, paid leave, climate change, prescription drug pricing, affordable housing and more. While there are no U.S. Army Corps of Engineers related provisions in the Build Back Better reconciliation measure on navigation and/or flood control, there are provisions that address lead pipe replacement and water affordability issues. However, it is unclear whether the Democrats will have the votes in the Senate which has a narrow 50-50 split. This means Democrats cannot afford to lose even one vote, a heavy lift after several Democrat Senators have already indicated they haven’t signed off on the package yet.
FY2022 APPROPRIATIONS. As you know, the 2021 fiscal year ended on September 30. Congress passed a continuing resolution to until December 3 to give negotiators time to work on a package. To date, the House has passed most of its FY2022 bills, the Senate none. As a result, in October, Senate Appropriations Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) released the remaining nine FY2022 appropriations bills. These bills will be used as a baseline for negotiations with the House of the FY2022 omnibus package. Please note that the nine bills do not include the Energy and Water Appropriations package that was released in August. However, the nine bills do include the Interior and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bills. Under the Transportation measure, the Port Infrastructure Development Program would get $240 million, $10 million more than FY2021 for planning and capital assistance.
Resources:
- To view the Interior appropriations bill, click here
- To view the Interior appropriations summary, click here.
- To view the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development bill, click here
- To view the summary for the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations package, click here.
ADMINISTRATION. EMPLOYER VACCINE MANDATE HAS JAN 4 DEADLINE. On November 4, the Administration announced that employers with over 100 employees must either require workers to be vaccinated or provide COVID-19 tests on a weekly basis. Additionally, employees are required to pay the worker for the time it takes to get the vaccination. Moreover, employees are required to mandate that all unvaccinated employees wear face masks while in the workplace. There are record-keeping requirements. For more information, click here.
ADMINISTRATION. PRESIDENTIAL PROCLAMATION ON CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE SECURITY AND RESILENCE. On October 29, President Biden released Proclamation 10295 on Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month, 2021. For more information, click here.
DOE. REPORT RELEASED ON U.S. Hydropower Permitting Process. Last month, the Department of Energy (DOE) released a report on “An Examination of the Hydropower Licensing and Federal Authorization Process.” The report details several key findings: length and complexity of the licensing process is challenging for all stakeholder sectors, including regulatory agencies; longer licensing timelines are associated with greater environmental complexity; licensing costs generally disproportionately impact both smaller projects and projects seeking original licenses; environmental study negotiations are a source of stakeholder disagreement in the licensing process; incomplete and/or inadequate information for authorization processes result in longer licensing timelines and disagreements among some stakeholders; the Integrated Licensing Process had the shortest and least variable timeline of the three licensing processes; compared to other types of energy and water infrastructure, both nationally and internationally, the U.S. licensing process includes more federal and state agencies as well as opportunities for stakeholder engagement; and environmental measures resulting from the licensing process are important to ecosystems and stakeholders. To read the report, click here.
EPA. EPA SEEKS NOMINATIONS FOR REGIONAL ROUNDTABLE WOTUS DISCUSSIONS. This past summer, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) announced plans to revised the current definition of “Waters of the U.S.” As part of this effort, the agencies committed to holding ten focused regional discussions around the country with a variety of stakeholders. According to the Federal Register notice, each roundtable should include “diverse perspectives and highlight the experience of individual participants with the definition of “waters of the United States.” The roundtables will occur in December 2021 and potentially January 2022. The agencies are taking nominations until December 1, 2021, at WOTUS-outreach@epa.gov. For more information, click here.
EPA. BOARD OF SCIENTIFIC CONSELORS SAFE AND SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCES VIDEOCONFERENCE SUBCOMMITEE MEETING (December 1-2 from 12:00pm—5pm ET; December 14 from 11am—2pm; and December 20 from 11am—2pm ET)). EPA’s Office of Research and Development will hold a meeting of the Board of Scientific Counselors Safe and Sustainable Water Resources Subcommittee to discuss EPA’s research program on nutrients and harmful algal blooms. All attendees must pre-register. For more information, click here.
FEMA. FEMA HOSTS MEETINGS ON POSSIBLE REVISIONS TO NFIP (Monday, November 15 from 3:30—5:00pm ET). The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is currently accepting comments on its Request for Information on potential changes to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). As part of this effort, FEMA is holding two public meetings to gather feedback. The first meeting was held on November 4 and the second meeting is scheduled for November 15 from 3:30pm—5pm ET. To register, click here.
FMC. Request for Applications To Fill a Vacancy on the National Shipper Advisory Committee. The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) is requesting applications from qualified candidates to be considered for appointment as a member of the National Shipper Advisory Committee (“Committee”). This recently established Committee will advise the Commission on policies relating to the competitiveness, reliability, integrity, and fairness of the international ocean freight delivery system. Applications must be received by November 17, 2021. For more information, click here.
USACE. USACE CIVIL WORKS PARTNER SESSION. On November 4, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers held a USACE Civil Works Partner Session where they briefed partners their efforts to engage stakeholders more in climate resilience, environmental justice and more. While the session was not recorded, USACE plans to post the meeting notes and slide deck on their revolutionize webpage.
CAUCUS MEETING. NWC Water Supply Caucus meeting (Friday, November 19 at 2pm ET). The Water Supply/Reuse Caucus is tasked with studying issues that pertain to water supply storage and reuse issues. Primary federal agencies of interest include but are not limited to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Bureau of Reclamation.
NWC POLICY MEETING. NWC Legislative Policy Committee meeting (Thursday, December 2 at 4pm ET—Note: this meeting may be moved). NWC’s Legislative Policy Committee (LPC) serves as the primary advisor on NWC federal policy positions and decisions. Comprised of a broad scope of NWC membership, LPC is a consensus-based committee that is tasked with studying issues, recommending new federal policy positions, and drafting and signing off on NWC letters. LPC meets face-to-face twice a year at NWC’s Legislative Summit and Annual Meeting and holds monthly video calls on the first Thursday of the month. LPC is open to all interested NWC members. If interested in serving on LPC, please reach out to Julie Ufner, NWC President.
CAUCUS MEETING. NWC Navigation Caucus Meeting: (The next regularly scheduled quarterly meeting is Tuesday, January 11 at 2pm ET). The Navigation Caucus focuses on opportunities and challenges to keep inland and deep draft navigation channels open and usable, as well as issues that may impact those entities that depend on these waterways. Primary federal agencies of interest include but are not limited to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Coast Guard, and the Maritime Administration.
As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. Thank you again for your support of NWC!